Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) is a known method for carrier modulation in digital wireless transmission. Very briefly, a block of information bits for OFDM transmission is mapped to a sequence of modulation symbols. The resulting symbols are applied blockwise as inputs to an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT). The IDFT performs a transformation from the frequency domain to the time domain. Thus, in effect, each modulation symbol modulates a respective subcarrier, and the outputs of the IDFT, after parallel-to-serial conversion, represent, in effect, a sampling of the resulting composite waveform over a specific time interval. This waveform is placed on a radiofrequency carrier and transmitted. At the receiver, the above procedure is inverted to recover the original information bits. Of course only the bare essentials of OFDM have been described here. Further details and refinements will become evident in the discussion below.
Various transmission resources are available for OFDM transmission. These include timeslots, frequency subcarriers, and in some cases may even include spreading codes. Thus for example, a pair of messages may be sent using orthogonal resources by sending them in different timeslots, or on different sets of mutually orthogonal subcarriers.
By using orthogonal resources to transmit a pair of messages, the sender can assure that the messages will be received with little or no mutual interference. However, it is possible under some circumstances to successfully receive two or more messages even if they are transmitted using the same resources. This may be possible if one signal has a higher signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) than the other (taking into account the interference due to the lower-SINR signal), the two signals are sufficiently decorrelated with each other to appear to the receiver as random noise, and other contributions to the interference and noise are sufficiently low. Advantageously, the receiver is a successive interference cancellation receiver.
One useful way to decrease signal correlations is by scrambling. In scrambling, a signal is combined, e.g. by a blockwise exclusive-or (XOR) operation, with a pseudorandom sequence referred to as a “scrambling sequence” or “scrambling code.” The code is known to the receiver, so the scrambling can be inverted for signal recovery.
If the higher-SINR signal is in fact strong enough (at the pertinent data rate) to be successfully received and decoded, it can be used to reconstruct a sample-level signal devoid of the lower-SINR signal. By “sample-level signal” is meant the transmitted signal just before placing it on the radiofrequency carrier, or the received signal at baseband level just after recovering it from the radiofrequency carrier. By subtracting the reconstructed signal from the total received signal at sample level, an estimate is obtained of that portion of the received signal that is solely attributable to the lower-SINR signal (plus interference and noise). If interference and noise are low enough, the channel coefficients are known well enough, and an appropriate data rate has been chosen, the message encoded in the lower-SINR signal can be recovered.
The process outlined above for sending and receiving message transmissions that share the same resources is referred to as “superposition coding.”
Superposition coding can be used to increase the spectral efficiency of OFDM networks. For example, one proposed application of superposition coding involves the type of network in which the same physical level packet or other physically transmitted signal can be transmitted in a broadcast simultaneously by the base stations serving all cells within a broadcast zone. With superposition coding, each base station can send unicast or multicast messages using the same resources as the broadcast message. Because the various participating base stations reinforce each others' broadcast transmissions, each base station can generally reserve some power for the unicast or multicast transmissions. The ratio between broadcast and unicast (or multicast) power at each base station can be adjusted to optimize spectral efficiency, at given data transmission rates.
At each downlink receiver, the broadcast signal will generally be the signal with the higher SINR. Thus, it will also generally be the main source of interference to the unicast or multicast signal. However, because all base stations in the broadcast zone are sending the same interfering (relative to the unicast or multicast) broadcast signal, subtraction of the reconstructed signal will generally be very effective for removing such interference and thus permitting the lower-SINR unicast or multicast to be recovered at the receiver.
Although substantial progress has been made in devising such schemes, opportunities remain for further improving the performance of networks using such schemes.